IBM

The shift from a hardware-centric to a service-centric and now to a cloud and cognitive service model. A transformation of this kind is not easy for any company with more than 75,000 employees, let alone 400,000 that IBM has worldwide. Google reports at 57,000, Apple around 80,000, and Blackberry/RIM at 7,000 (at its peak) to put into perspective.

Blackberry led the market, was too comfortable, and failed to transform to market demands.

Many, many of the leaders and executives at IBM have Engineering and Computer Science backgrounds; they aren't your typical no-work-experience MBAs. They make decisions very analytically, as engineers tend to do, with their clients in mind, trying to help solve business and world problems.

That problem was once mainframes, servers, storage, and systems; it evolved to implementing and building IT solutions around that hardware; now it's a hybrid cloud implement-yourself-slash-business-service.

Very few companies own the entire ecosystem (mainframe, business solutions, and cloud availability) – IBM does. The cognitive guys can request improvements and features to the hardcore engineering server CPU team for maximum optimization, making the most advanced system easily available to all businesses.

No doubt, IBM is years ahead of the competition with their Watson Services, and it's built on an ecosystem that is in line with CIOs' and CTOs' initiatives going into the future.

The platform also lends well to startups and smaller companies being able to leverage and take advantage of IBM's top-notch enterprise and industry services at flexible, scalable, and affordable rates. This is new ground for IBM that was typically reserved for big firms and enterprise companies. Way to go, IBM!

Old sellers not willing to adapt to what the industry is demanding will have a tough transition. Again, 400,000 employees makes it difficult for any company. People can get comfortable, and changing becomes difficult. Again, Blackberry/RIM is evidence of being the smartphone leader who failed to transform and was just barely saved from bankruptcy by being acquired for pennies on the dollar.

Again, Jim Balsillie, former CEO of Blackberry, had no engineering or computer science background and tried to run the company solely with his Harvard MBA, which he ran into the ground. IBM has a lot of work to transform a lot of people who are more comfortable doing things the old way.

Keep doing what you're doing, but maybe do it faster!